Casedefiniteness

Casedefiniteness is a theoretical term used in linguistics to describe how a language’s nominal case morphology may encode or interact with definiteness information. It refers to patterns in which the form of a noun phrase not only signals its syntactic role (through case) but also reflects whether the NP is definite, indefinite, or otherwise referentially specified. The concept is most often discussed in the context of languages that have rich case systems and simultaneous marking of definiteness through determiners, demonstratives, or noun endings.

In practice, casedefiniteness can manifest in several ways. Some languages may pair a definite determiner or article with a distinct case form or allomorph, producing a systematic alignment between definiteness and case. Other languages without explicit articles may still exhibit noun or determiner forms whose case-marking patterns differ depending on whether the NP is definite or indefinite, sometimes mediated by demonstratives or by syntactic position. The result is a cross-linguistic tendency for definite NPs to appear with different morphosyntactic realizations than indefinite ones within the same case framework.

Typologically, casedefiniteness is a topic of debate and study rather than a universally recognized category. It is most often discussed in discussions of how definiteness interacts with case in languages with no rigid article systems, or in theoretical accounts that seek to unify morphology for definiteness and case. Some analyses treat definiteness as a separate semantic feature that can influence case realization, while others view case and definiteness as distinct but interacting layers of the grammar.

Overall, casedefiniteness serves as a useful analytic concept for examining how referential status and grammatical function are encoded together in a language’s nominal morphology. See also definiteness, grammatical case, and morphosyntax.